Meet Mauricio Botero Ruiz | 3D Animator and Visualization Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Mauricio Botero Ruiz and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Mauricio, how has your work-life balance changed over time?
I believe that work-life balance is essential for any person that is actively engaged in a creative field at any capacity. When I started my education at my hometown (Bogota, Colombia) studying Audiovisual and Multimedia Communication at La Universidad de La Sabana, I didn’t knew what was work life balance. I didn’t put much effort in my education before college, but I was committed to change my habits and learn as much as I could in my higher education. After starting my college studies, I thought that to be able to be a successful visual effects artist I needed to spend uncountable hours in front of the computer and keep learning new skills until “I get there”. So for years that was exactly what I did without stopping to think that I needed to organize my schedule and reflect on my “work-time” and my “leisure-time”. I always thought it was either one or the other, until I took the risk of going to the United States to fulfill my dream and study 3D Animation as a master degree at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD).

During my time at SCAD, I first approached my education in the same way I did before, thinking it would be a similar experience. I spent countless hours on the computer labs working in my animation skills without taking much care of my physical and mental health. Without noticing it I started to isolate myself from the rest of the world and that had serious consequences on my health, which lead to ask myself if there was a better way to be successful in my career at the same time I take care of my health. During my last year at SCAD I started to read about topics of mental and physical health, as well as how to reach work-life balance. Soon, I become obsessed with the topic and I started to organize my schedule, leaving room for different activities (like social gatherings) and breaks. However, I didn’t reach work-life balance. It was until I stepped into the visual effects industry, working as a visualization artist at The Third Floor Inc where I learned how to manage my activities and my time to reach the balance I was looking for.

I was hired on November of 2020 to work as on the production of “Loki” (Season 1), and afterwards I got the opportunity to work on the movie “Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania” from Marvel Studios. For the first time in multiple years of study I was having a fixed schedule, which helped me to organize my activities. In the beginning, I wasn’t used for the additional spare time and due to the competitive nature of the industry I thought that I needed to keep working on my reel to don’t fall behind. It was not too long to be burnout and in need for a good rest. I started to research again through YouTube videos and books how to stay productive while avoiding burnout and I found that multiple sources mentioned the importance of having hobbies that are opposite from the activities I do in my workday. In my case, that meant to engage in physical and social activities since in my workday I spend a lot of time staring at a screen with little to zero social interaction. However, being still in the COVID pandemic there were not many activities outside, so I decided to engage in physical activity at home. Through time, my physical activity increased, as well as my social encounters, which made a huge difference in my work-life balance. I started to have more energy in my workday, my mood shifted, and my relationship with discomfort has been changing overtime thanks to high intensity physical activity and stepping out of my comfort zone.

These new habits were especially useful during the WGA/SAG-AFTRA strikes, which left me unemployed for the rest of last year since June. I had two options: fall into the anxiety of not knowing the future of the industry, or keep growing professionally by learning new skills and keep myself accountable. I choose for the second one. From June to this day I decided to keep my regular routine that I have built over the two years and a half that I worked at The Third Floor, and I kept roughly the same schedule to work on my new skills (which it was Unreal Engine and Python programming). I spend my mornings doing physical exercise to keep my energy up, then I go to a coffee shop with my computer to work for a certain amount of time on programming, and then I go back home to work on Unreal Engine (software used for Virtual Production in the visual effects industry) or other animation projects. Today, I consider that I have learned a good deal about how to reach the work-life balance that I’m looking for, although I still don’t consider I have a 100% balance in my work and my personal life, but I think I’m very close. In normal conditions, I get the amount of sleep that I need, I engage in different hobbies involving physical activity, I spend time with my closed ones, and I’m able to work on different projects without much difficulty.

I believe work-life balance is different for everyone, since everyone live a different life. In my case I need to include physical activity, social encounters, and a certain amount of work hours in which I’m focused 100% of the time (between 20 to 45 hours, depending on the project). It depends on how the social, family, work, and self spheres looks like for everyone. The essential part is to be able to try different strategies, reflect on the results that come from these strategies, and try new ones until the balance is found. Learning to sit with discomfort and learning how to be consistent has been crucial skills throughout my journey, and my hope is to keep learning from these and new experiences.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I’m an animation and visualization artist, which means that I love to tell stories through character performance and cinematography. I take a lot of inspiration from real life and naturalistic animation for my personal work, as well as movies that prioritize to tell a story with dynamic cinematography and filmmaking. I believe what sets me apart from other people is the way I organize my activities while approaching a specific project. I believe the best relationship I can grow is the one that I have with discomfort and keeping myself accountable.

It hasn’t been an easy journey and it is full with ups and downs. I have approach most of my obstacles with a specific mindset which has at its core to be kind to myself and to keep trying new techniques until I find the ones that work for me at my current stage in life. I have learned multiple lessons, but one of the most important ones is to take one day at the time, without taking shame or regret on what didn’t worked out. It helps me to keep moving forward instead of living in the past.

I want the world to know that I’m an animation and visualization artist that cares a lot about the state of the artists in the industry regarding mental health, and one of my main purposes is to help as much artists that I can on working on the projects we all love, while maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Areas: Piedmont Park
Buckhead Village

Spots:
Dancing Goats
Cafe Intermezzo

Hangout:
World of Coca-Cola
Georgia Aquarium
Tongue and Grove

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I believe the success that I have had in my short career is due to the help of multiple people and books. The most important person being my grandfather Carlos Ruiz, because if it wasn’t for him I believe I wouldn’t take the step in learning about work-life balance and the importance of taking care of myself.

Secondly, it would be my family to always trust in my skills and support me regardless how uncertain the future might seem.

Thirdly, to all my animation mentors that I have had over the years (both in school and my job), it would be a very long list, but some of them are William Tessier, Alexis Wanneroy, Jason Anastas, Jesse Lewis-Evans, Todd Constantine, Andrew Miller, and Kyle Lopez. Additionally, I want to give a huge shoutout to The Third Floor for giving me the opportunity to break into the industry where I was able to grow exponentially as an artist.

Lastly, I owe a big debt to the book “Art of Living” by Bob Proctor. I learn from it how to start enjoying my life while working towards my professional goals. Without it I wouldn’t being enjoying a good life while having the opportunity to work in high profile projects in the entertainment industry.

Website: https://www.mauthorn.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mbranimation/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maubotero/

Image Credits
Laura Londono